Saturday, July 21, 2018

Review: The Forbidden Door

THE FORBIDDEN DOOR is the fourth in Dean Koontz's Jane Hawk Series, and is absolutely the BEST yet. Heartwrenching, scary, tension ratcheted to the max--THE FORBIDDEN DOOR has it all and Dean Koontz delivers! I stayed on the metaphorical edge of my seat from first page to last, alternately shouting "Oh no!" And "Right on" (mentally). Mr. Koontz goes over-the-wall in this novel, and on a realistic (all too possible) foundation of Conspiracy, he segues into both psychology and philosophy, with several excursions of a metaphysical bent (a tendency of this author I have witnessed since his novel THE TAKING). I was particularly impressed with the philosophy of one character, which the author terms "radical philosophical nihilism," and which I first became aware of in 8th grade (I've been an aficionado of Speculative fiction since early childhood) as the philosophy of "theoretical solipsism." How this plays out with this particular character I found absolutely fascinating, and thought-provoking. I also marveled at the way in which the author peeled the masks from several characters, and the arcs of character evolution. I am chomping at the bit for Book 5.